WSJ: Walmart in Talks to Buy Online Retailer Jet.com

Once touted as a serious threat to Amazon, startup retailer Jet.com is reportedly in acquisition talks.

Walmart is in talks to buy online retailer Jet.com, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. It was not clear how much Walmart would pay, but Jet.com could be worth as much as $3 billion, the WSJ said.

Walmart declined to comment. Jet.com, considered a formidable competitor to Amazon, was not available for comment.

Walmart is investing heavily in its online business to take on Amazon, but it has struggled on that front. The retailer's online business posted its slowest growth in a year in the latest quarter. Walmart's online sales were $13.7 billion in 2015, according to research firm Internet Retailer.

Marc Lore launched Jet.com in July last year, promising big discounts in exchange for members placing large orders and paying an annual fee. Lore in 2010 sold his diapers-to-soap e-commerce firm Quidsi to Amazon for $540 million, and once his non-compete clause expired he set about launching another Amazon competitor.

Walmart shares, which were marginally higher earlier, were off 0.2 percent at $72.96 in late morning trading.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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5 Comments on WSJ: Walmart in Talks to Buy Online Retailer Jet.com

So let me preface this by saying that its (relatively) recent rebranding attempt to make it more Target-Lite failed miserably. The second they took out the fabric department it was over. Wall Street knew it and the stock price tanked. That CEO was fired and order was attempted, though not entirely successful. The fabric department never came back the way it should’ve, they cut their payroll by a gazillion, and shelves went empty for a long time. None of that has really gone back to the way it was before they got uppity. And their website sucks wads. They were NEVER an Amazon contender and were never going to be … under their own steam.

On the upside, one thing they HAVE done is their grocery ordering system and drive-thru pickup lane. That ordering system still has flaws and it needs to be ground i to the employees’ heads that when someone says NO SUBSTITUTIONS, they MEAN no substitutions.

I would bet my house that they’re buying Jet to get a decent online platform. I’ve bought from Jet. It’s not dissimilar fom Amazon, but its branding is kind of jarring because it doesn’t LOOK like Amazon, which is my problem, not theirs. If it has a Walmart face and good service, as Jet has done for me, I’d order more often.

At least Jet doesn’t have to worry about monetizing its operation like Facebook and Twitter do.

The more I think about it, the more I think this is an excellent move, if Walmart’s smart enough to leave Jet to do its thing, just with a blue banner and yellow sun on it.